Mitch Daniels’s Next Hurdle

[Geee]

National Review:

Right after the 2008 general election, in which Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Indiana since Lyndon Johnson, Gov. Mitch Daniels decided it was the perfect time to stage a Republican comeback. His goal was to win a GOP majority in the state house of representatives, which had been Democrat-controlled since 2006.

On Election Day this year, Daniels succeeded: The GOP gained a majority in the house and picked up enough seats in the state senate to give Republicans a supermajority. The careful planning begun in 2008 and intensified in 2009 by Daniels and other Indiana Republican leaders had paid off.


The importance of gaining a legislative majority is illustrated by the 2009 budget fight, one of the most contentious the state has had in recent years. Democrats and Republicans disagreed on many things, most notably how much to increase education spending and whether the state should use some of its reserve fund. When legislators were unable to pass a budget in the regular session, they went into special session. Ultimately, just hours before the state government would have had to shut down, they passed a budget that used $300 million of the state’s reserve fund and increased education spending more than Republicans would have liked.